objects list of changes

I’m going thru the Max 5 doc in order to foresee the problems I’ll
have to deal with my old patchs. I was happy to find the "Object-
Specific Changes" page but this one is rather minimalist. Is there an
exhaustive list of changes per objects ? Unless I’m missing it, I’m a
bit surprised not to find one. Wouldn’t it be useful to have in the
objects reference pages a note stating "new in Max 5"/"removed in Max
5" message/attribute ? I assume developers keep track of these
changes so I’m just wondering if us users could benefit it as well.

Perhaps what you are really looking for is a certain kind of inspiration that comes from finding some new message added to an object. There is a little of that in Max 5, but not a lot. The list of object-specific compatibility changes are mostly intended to explain why something you might have used in a previous version no longer works. It is not supposed to be a list of new features.

There is a very easily accessible page in the documentation called "What’s New in Max 5" that thoroughly covers the vast majority of changes we’ve made, which have to do with the environment, not messages to objects. The pattr objects are continually being updated and I’m sure they’ll continue to be updated over the next several months. Unlike in the past, we now have a system in place that essentially forces us to document new messages and attributes when they are added to an object. If you are a pattr enthusiast, doing a search for pattr in the documentation might be a good idea when updates are released.

In addition, all of our change notes are collected on the "Latest Support Information" page accessible from the Help menu. This page is updated for each release. So assuming you become au courant with Max 5, you’ll never miss a thing if you spend some quality time with that list.